Pokemon: Real-Life Pokepuff Recipe!

“You see, cooking is the type of art that disappears as soon as it is completed. Pokemon battles are the same. Even memories of sweet victory soon fade after the battle ends. To devote yourself entirely to such a life, made up of fleeting experiences — that is truly artful.”
~ Siebold, water trainer of the Gen 6 Elite Four

Pokemon’s new favorite treat: PokePuffs! Introduced with Pokemon X and Y (Gen 6, 2013), you can feed your Pokemon PokePuffs to increase their affection towards you. You can get PokePuffs from visiting Pokemon and by playing the mini-games in PokeAmie. So why not make some of your own Real-Life Pokepuffs?

At affection level 2 and higher, a Pokémon will gain 1.2 times the normal experience from battles.

At affection level 4 and higher, a Pokémon will sometimes avoid attacks, even when they have 100% accuracy, and sometimes endure attacks that would otherwise make the Pokemon faint.

At affection level 5 and higher, a Pokémon will have higher chance of dealing critical hits, and sometimes shake off status conditions.

So, eat up! However, these effects do not work while conducting wireless battles.

My Jirachi wants the Fancy Sweet Pokepuff!

These tasty treats come in five flavors, but Pokemon enjoy all PokePuff flavors equally:

Citrus: Orange colored Puff.

Mocha: Brown and light brown colored Puff.

Spice: Dark brown colored Puff.

Mint: Green colored Puff.

Sweet: Pink colored Puff.

Each flavor comes in five variants. The higher quality the variant, the more affection your Pokemon gets from eating it. The variants are, in order of lowest to highest quality:

Basic: has no decorations or embellishments.

Frosted: has a swirled frosting on top.

Fancy: looks the same as basic but with a topping*.

Deluxe: looks the same as Frosted, but with a topping*.

Supreme: The rare fifth variant, each flavor corresponding to a particular season:

Spring: Sweet flavor with pink flower decorations. Obtain this with a score of 5 stars on any Unlimited level mini-game.

Summer: Mint flavor, with an orange slice and various colored circular sprinkles. Obtained this only with a score of 5 stars on Unlimited Head It.

Fall: Citrus flavor, with maple leaf and acorn decorations. Obtained with a score of 5 stars on Unlimited Berry Picker.

Winter: Spice Flavor with white frosting, a chocolate topping, and snowman & candy cane decorations. Get this with a score of 5 stars on Unlimited Tile Puzzle.

Honor: Mocha flavor, with star and PokeBall decorations. After beating the elite four, visiting Pokemon will give you this.

Wish: This special Puff looks like a birthday cake! Visiting Pokemon will give you this on your birthday.

And now, my Pokepuffs! The in-game Pokepuff is pictured for comparison.

In-Game Deluxe Mocha PokePuff

Real-Life Deluxe Mocha PokePuff

In-Game Deluxe Spice PokePuff

Real-Life Deluxe Spice PokePuff

In-Game Fancy Spice PokePuff

Real-Life Fancy Spice PokePuff

In-Game Fancy Sweet PokePuff

Real-Life Fancy Sweet PokePuff

In-Game Deluxe Sweet PokePuff

Real-Life Deluxe Sweet PokePuff

In-Game Supreme Spring PokePuff

Real-Life Supreme Spring PokePuff

In-Game Deluxe Citrus PokePuff

Real-Life Deluxe Citrus PokePuff

In-Game Supreme Fall PokePuff

Real-Life Supreme Fall PokePuff

In-Game Fancy Mint PokePuff

Real-Life Fancy Mint PokePuff

In-Game Deluxe Mint PokePuff

Real-Life Deluxe Mint PokePuff

And here is the complete listing. I didn’t make every kind of Pokepuff, but I think I made a pretty fair sampling!

Recipe Time!
Let’s make some Pokepuffs of our own! Warning: This is a rather “advanced” recipe – I’m not holding your hand through it. I’ve included instructions only for creating colored batter and decorating your PokePuffs. I do not have an actual cake recipe. If that scares you, and you can’t “make a cake” without getting a recipe, I’m sorry for you. The amount of Pokepuffs you make depends on the cake recipe you use. A standard recipe makes about 15 cupcakes (in my experience), but it also depends how big you make them and how you measure the ingredients, etc. I always like to make more than needed, because some don’t come out right. Without further adieu, you will need:

For the CAKE:

White cake batter – I say white because this allows you to more easily dye the batter with different colors. Yellow cake will be okay, but the colors probably won’t come out as well.

Frosting dye (Pink, Orange, Green) - This is different from regular food coloring, because regular food coloring is very watery and will mess up the consistency of your frosting. This is frosting dye. Either the frosting dye or regular food coloring will be fine for changing the color of the cake batter, but I just used frosting dye for both because it was easier.

Cocoa powder - for the chocolate frosting and the chocolate cupcakes.

Powdered sugar – a lot of it. I don’t measure this when I make frosting, but you will probably need 4 pounds (8 cups) or more. There is a lot of frosting going on here.

Butter – for the frosting. Because shortening is gross and you shouldn’t be eating that garbage.

Milk – to make the frosting.

Vanilla, Mint, and Orange extract – this is for each flavor of pokepuff (sweet, mint, and citrus). Just add a tiny bit (like half teaspoon) to each of your corresponding batters. You may also wish to add some to your frostings.

Toppings:

Pirouette cookies – For the deluxe mint Pokepuffs. For example, I used these.

Orange Slice Gummies – Or anything that looks like an orange slice, for the deluxe citrus puffs.

Maraschino cherries, for the deluxe sweet puffs

Chocolate Rectangles, Milk and White – such as the rectangular pieces of a Hershey’s or Lindt Bar (or nearly any chocolate bar that breaks into pieces). These are for the Mocha and Spice puffs.

Supreme Spring PokePuffs needs Flowers, or you can make these by hand by piping icing onto wax paper

Other:

Icing bags and tips to distribute frosting

Normal sized Muffin Tin

Wax paper if you want to make Supreme Spring Puffs

A lot of time and patience. I made all of these puffs in two days: bake one day, decorate another.

Goomy is excited!

Directions:

First we need to make some cake! Mix up some plain, white cake batter and distribute it into four bowls: One each for Chocolate, Pink, Green, and Orange. Add Cocoa powder to make chocolate, and corresponding food coloring to make the others. I also threw in half a teaspoon of Vanilla to the pink, Mint extract to the Green, and Orange extract to the Orange.

Colored PokePuff Batter. These are the colors and extracts I used.

For the Spice and Mocha Pokepuffs, I used chocolate cake batter. As you know, the Mocha is a lighter brown than the Spice puff. You can add more cocoa powder to this batter to make one darker, or add some White frosting dye to make one lighter.

Next we need to fill up our muffins tins and bake! I simply greased the tin with cooking spray and did not use cupcake liners. If such a thing as crinkle – free liners existed I think they would work, but for now we can’t because Pokepuffs just don’t have that crinkle. Oven temperature will vary based on the cake recipe you used. Make a few extra of each color in case some don’t bake quite right, and you’re bound to mess up some when decorating.

PokePuffs getting ready to bake!

This part can be a little tricky, because if you don’t fill up the cups enough the puffs will be flat and crappy looking. But, if you overfill them, the puffs will overflow out the top. I like to push the limits of just-about-to-overflow, giving a really fluffy cupcake. This is about 3/4ths, or a little more, full in each cup. (If you look closely at my pics, I didn’t fill my chocolate cupcakes enough and these are smaller than the others. q.q).

Pokepuffs in the oven! Might have overfilled them just a tad.

Baking time varies by cake batter. Bake until toothpick comes out clean. Make sure the cupcakes COOL COMPLETELY before you attempt to put any icing on them. Not that this should be a problem – you will need a lot of time to make all the icing!

Colored PokePuffs waiting for frosting!

As you can see in this picture, the outsides of the puffs get a little brown when baked. This is upsetting, because the color of the puff is very crucial! However, if they were baked with a cupcake liner, they would get that crappy cupcake crinkle all around them. What you can do instead is gently roll, peel, or use a knife to pear off this crispy edge on your cupcakes. If you were very careful not to overbake them, this should be fairly easy.

It may seem trivial, but it makes a great difference!

I actually cheated a little bit and only did this on the front of the cupcakes (for photographs! lolz).

We segue into the decorating section with my shiny Raiku!

Shiny Raiku stares into your soul! (This is totally not an excuse to show off my pokemanz …)

DECORATING:

First things first, we need some frosting. And LOTS of it. As stated above, you are probably going to need about 4Lbs (8 cups) or more. Make sure you also have your icing dye ready (pink, green, orange) and cocoa powder to “dye” some icing brown. You could just use brown icing dye, but making chocolate is just as easy and much tastier.

Each Pokepuff is going to need two frostings: A stiffer frosting for the top, and a thinner frosting for the bottom layer. A stiff frosting will hold its shape when piped, and the thin frosting needs to be just thin enough to move around when dabbed with the back of a spoon, but won’t drip down the side of your cupcake.

Most of these bottom layers are white, so make sure you set aside a bit of white frosting.

Let’s start with this chocolate icing. You’re going to need two shades of brown, one darker and one lighter.

Thicker dark icing, thinner light icing.

The Mocha PokePuff has light icing, and the Spice PokePuff has a dark thin icing. They have the same medium shade of brown for the thicker frosting on top. Add cocoa powder to darken the color and thicken your icing. Use a tiny bit of milk to thin your icing.

Take your bottom layer thin icing and place a huge blob in the middle of your cupcake. Gently dab it with the back of a spoon (or whatever) until it flows nicely over the sides.

If you have the right consistency, it won’t run.

Next, fill your icing bag with your thicker icing for the top of your pokepuff. Use a star tip, one of the biggest ones you have. I think mine might have looked even more like their in-game versions if I had an even bigger tip.

Start on the outside and make 3 or 4 continuous layers of icing, getting smaller as you approach the top. It looks really messy if you break in between, so do your best to make it a continuous icing line swirl thing.

A frosted Pokepuff! Add the topping to make Deluxe.

And that’s pretty much it! Add the appropriate topping if you want to make a deluxe puff, or omit the top thicker swirled layer to make fancy or basic puffs.

Now we repeat with different colors! All of the other puffs use a thin white icing, and just a different icing for the top. Time to make pink, green, and orange.

Colored PokePuff Icing

Again, you can add a little vanilla, mint, or orange extract to the corresponding icings.

Repeat the same steps as before to make your basic or frosted pokepuffs!

White first, then color!

To make fancy or deluxe, it’s all about the topping.

Deluxe and Fancy Sweet Puffs:

Top with a Maraschino cherry. Deluxe has the thicker icing swirls, Fancy has two layers of thinner icing.

Sometimes the double layer of thin icing can get a little tricky.

Real-Life Deluxe Sweet PokePuff

Supreme Spring Pokepuff:

This one has pink 3 flowers on it. Take a piece of waxed paper and pipe out your flowers: 2 small and 1 large. Make some extras in case some get ruined. Keep your puff nearby to gauge size.

I learned that I suck at making Icing flowers.

Take your wax paper and put it in the freezer. Let them completely freeze, about 10 minutes to be safe. Longer is fine. When you are ready to add these to your puff, remove them from the freezer and scrape them off the waxed paper with a spatula (metal works best.)

Scrape up the frozen flowers.

Next, QUICKLY pick up the flower and gently press it onto your Pokepuff.

Supreme Spring puff is the prettiest puff!

Deluxe and Fancy Mint puffs:

Deluxe has the thicker icing swirls, Fancy has two layers of thinner icing. The Fancy Mint puff has what appears to be a yellow moon on it. I looked through my chocolate molds and used the closest thing I had to a moon shape. You can get chocolate molds very cheap, at stores like Michael’s.

Add about half a Pirouette cookie for the Deluxe puff.

Real-Life Mint PokePuffs!

Supreme Fall PokePuff:

So this one was a bit interesting. You need 3 leaves: brown, red, and yellow, along with an “acorn.”

I used the only chocolate mold I had for leaves, which were ordinary tree leaves. It will be more accurate if you can find a mold for Maple leaves! First, normal chocolate for the brown leaves.

Out of the mold (top) and in the mold (bottom). I was very neat putting it in the mold.

For red and yellow, I used white chocolate with either red or yellow food dye.

Out of the mold (top) and in the mold (bottom). The extra edges break off, but it looks messy.

For the “acorn,” I wanted to use a chocolate ball but had nothing of the appropriate size. I ended up using a small Tootsie pop, which I found rather hilarious but whatever, it worked. It actually made it pretty easy to stick on the puff, having a small stick and all.

Deluxe and Fancy Citrus puff:

Just add the gummy orange wedge. Or anything that resembles one; I suppose you could even use a real orange.

Real-Life Citrus PokePuffs

And now you have created Pokepuffs, congratz!

Real-Life PokePuffs Group

More of my Real Life PokePuffs!

And that’s it! Hope you enjoyed the recipe! I hope soon to add a “basic frosting” and “basic cake” recipe to my blog, so anyone can make these puffs from scratch. If you made your own puffs, feel free to send pics to me and I’ll add the pictures to the bottom of this recipe! This is an original recipe by me: Megan Murray.

Thanks for this. My little sister requested poke puff cupcakes for her birthday, and while I already had a pretty good idea of what I was going to do for them, this gave a lot of good pointers. I think if mine come out even half as adorable as yours, they’re sure to be a hit!

A friend of mine just asked me to make 2 dozen Pokepuff cakepops for her boyfriend’s birthday! I was totally looking for a recipe or an idea how to do them (I don’t really get into Pokemon but my husband and kids love it, along with my friend and her boyfriend), so when she asked me to make pokepuffs, I was a little intimidated. Thank you so much for the tips, the recipe, and the awesome ideas!!

What if pound cake cupcake pokepuffs with glaze on the cake then mousse on top that? Like for example strawberry pound cake with red/pink food coloring with vanilla glaze and then strawberry mousse. Do you think that would work or would that just be way to complicated?